Pier Scolari, Sgrena's partner, said yesterday "either this was an ambush, as I think, or we are dealing with imbeciles or terrorized kids who shoot at anyone." Since the latter has already been tragically demonstrated many times over in Iraq (graphically evidenced here), it makes an almost plausible explanation of what befell Sgrena's car, and a consoling fable to those who still balk at the notion that the United States has deliberately targetted journalists in Iraq. Which may very well be why the attempt on her life was made in this fashion.

Much of the world, and certainly much of Italy, has no qualms about assessing the contrary claims and evidence, and finding for intention. Most Americans, who lack a curious press in all but the most regrettable sense, will swallow their military's explanation, priding themselves on the fact that President Bush has promised an investigation, and presume the Italians were barrelling through a checkpoint. What did they expect, for Pete's sake?They had it coming.

The official line says that Sgrena's car ran a checkpoint at high speed. But "it wasn't a checkpoint," says Sgrena, and they weren't shot by sentries. It was "a patrol that started shooting after pointing some lights in our direction...we didn't understand where the shots came from.'' The car was only 700 metres from the airport, "which means that they had passed all checkpoints," adds Scolari.

The military contends it was uninformed about the progress of the negotions for her release, and was unaware Sgrena was on her way. But "the Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Scolari says.

The US has the troops first firing warning shots, then shooting into the engine block to stop the vehicle. The Italians say they were hit by hundreds of bullets. The Observer reports up to 400 rounds struck their car "from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour." Sgrena's car, the US claims, is now "lost," and cannot be inspected.)

And what should we think of this: if the US forces regarded the vehicle as a threat, why did its driver escape unscathed? The only fatality was secret service agent Nicola Calipari, who "was killed as he threw his body across Sgrena." He died instantly, struck in the temple.

Before the invasion began, Kate Adie, then of the BBC, reported she had been told by a Pentagon official that any [satellite] uplinks by journalists would be fired on" by US aircraft. The message couldn't be clearer: Embed or die.

Robert Fisk, had this to say in April, 2003, about the deaths of several colleagues:

First the Americans killed the correspondent of al-Jazeera yesterday and wounded his cameraman. Then, within four hours, they attacked the Reuters television bureau in Baghdad, killing one of its cameramen and a cameraman for Spain's Tele 5 channel and wounding four other members of the Reuters staff....Back in 2001, the United States fired a cruise missile at al-Jazeera's office in Kabul – from which tapes of Osama bin Laden had been broadcast around the world. No explanation was ever given for this extraordinary attack on the night before the city's "liberation"; the Kabul correspondent, Taiseer Alouni, was unhurt. By the strange coincidence of journalism, Mr Alouni was in the Baghdad office yesterday to endure the USAF's second attack on al-Jazeera.

Far more disturbing, however, is the fact that the al-Jazeera network – the freest Arab television station, which has incurred the fury of both the Americans and the Iraqi authorities for its live coverage of the war – gave the Pentagon the co-ordinates of its Baghdad office two months ago and received assurances that the bureau would not be attacked.

The year 2004 was the bloodiest on record for journalists, with much thanks to US forces in Iraq. How many of those deaths can incompetence explain? And when does Eason Jordan get back his job?

George W Bush makes the perfect empty suit to shoulder the case for ineptitude. Since such a man is titular Commander in Chief, it's no great stretch to imbue the US military with his characteristic imbecility. But that would be to presume a couple of things true, which I think are not: that Bush truly commands, and that chaos and ruin are never the intended result of US policy.

It may feel good to call Bush and his team miserable failures, yet they've stolen two presidential elections and a midterm, have dug into Iraq and the Caspian basin, and are looting the Treasury without obstruction. They may be failures in our eyes, but we're judging them on the terms of our values, while theirs can appear to us upside down. And we need to regard more than the surface of things, to make sense of their actions, and how they judge success.

For instance, the Bush White House is clearly bankrupting America: is that by accident, or design? Does it demonstrate incompent management, or is it the intentional manufacture of a crisis, to crash the system and create a larcenous Year Zero?

What makes us feel better, and which is more likely true: that they don't know what they're doing, or they do?

Here are two excerpts from Sgrena's work, which may speak to motive. First, a July, 2004 interview with a woman tortured in Abu Ghraib:

I asked her if she was held on her own all the time. 'No. It was then that they put me in a cell with other women, two women per cell. There were thirteen women, mainly wives of men belonging to the previous regime, and seven children. There was even the wife of Sabah Merza, one of Saddam's guards in the 1970s, who kept her hands plunged in ice to soothe the pain caused by the torture that had been inflicted on her. Another woman was in really bad shape: they'd kept hurling her against the wall. Another had been locked in a tiny cage for six days and couldn't even move. One of the prisoners had been forced to walk on all fours and her knees and elbows were in a terrible state. Another woman had been forced to separate faeces from urine, using her own hands. The soldiers frequently forced us to drink water from the toilet bowl. A woman of sixty, who had said she was a virgin, was continually threatened with rape.'

Did you know of cases of rape? 'Yes, but I'm not going to go into that. In our society, it's something you don't talk about.' How old were the women prisoners? 'Between forty and sixty years of age.' And what about children, how were they treated? 'We heard them screaming. They were tortured too. Mostly dogs were set on them.'

"We buried them, but we could not identify them because they were charred from the napalm bombs used by the Americans." People from Saqlawiya village, near Falluja, told al Jazeera television, based in Qatar, that they helped bury 73 bodies of women and children completely charred, all in the same grave. The sad story of common graves, which started at Saddam’s times, is not yet finished. Nobody could confirm if napalm bombs have been used in Falluja, but other bodies found last year after the fierce battle at Baghdad airport were also completely charred and some thought of nuclear bombs. No independent source could verify the facts, since all the news arrived until now are those spread by journalists embedded with the American troops, who would only allow British and American media to enrol with them. But the villagers who fled in the last few days spoke of many bodies which had not been buried: it was too dangerous to collect the corpses during the battle.

As she was released, Sgrena's captors - whoever they were - warned her to take care, because "there are Americans who don't want you to go back."

An independent foreign journalist, witness to numerous war crimes, writing for a communist paper. Would the killers and heirs of killers of nuns, Kennedys and Kings blink an eye at targetting such a person?

1307 Comments:

You write..."For instance, the Bush White House is clearly bankrupting America: is that by accident, or design? Does it demonstrate incompent management, or is it the intentional manufacture of a crisis, to crash the system and create a larcenous Year Zero?"

After sixty two years on the planet I find it unbelievable that you can write that about the world's greatest economy and I can say...yeh, well that sounds right. Christ the deficits just keep rising...and with the rising oil price will carry on ...

Chry Chaos and let slip the Dogs of War.

Boeing churn out 3,000 J DAM bomb sets a month - they are going to use them sometime soon.

He was involved in the negotiations hence he would know about the "true" state of things. He would have a grasp of the bigger picture such that small things which would go unnoticed by others he would pick up on. Negotiations involve give and take, suppose in this case the give was not money? Finally, if it is true he was shot in the temple that implies a sniper --- the rest of the shooting is camoflage.

Since Italian is my first language, I've been catching up on this story primarily in the Italian media. Yesterday, I was very distressed to see the great discrepancies between the line in the US corporate media and in the Italian.Some things to keep in mind and help publicize:Sgrena's car was NOT speeding towards the patrol. The driver was an experienced Iraqi who KNOWS better than to speed through a US checkpoint.There was a demonstration in front of the US embassy in Rome yesterday--something that I haven't seen reported anywhere in American media.A ransom was paid for Sgrena's release. That's something else that may have made her a target for the Americans as it's well-known they don't like ransoms to be paid for hostages.

We are in a hurry to get the 3rd world status reward at the next Oscars ... a cheap shot or not the race is on with controls in place and not yet succinct.With bankruptcy status occurring with vigor .. the constitution trampled ... the media controlled and in the end journalists getting killed by the military of a country once respected throughout the world and not FEARED... the FEAR factor is the lynch pin/

Since King Goerge (Bush) the Teddible stole the White House again last year, the neocons are out of control. So are their rabid supporters. They think they're entitled to lie, steal or kill to own all the dirt on the planet, and everything on or under it.

I put nothing past these neo-fascists. I sincerely believe this new military "training exercise," which they're calling "Joint Red Flag," is in fact preparation for King Goerge to declare himself Warmonger for Life, or however they say, "Fuehrer" in Texas.

Read this and tell me it doesn't remind you of a remake of 1964's "Seven Days In May," except instead of overthrowing an elected president, they're planning to install a dictator as happened so many times in Central and South America, Southeast Asia and Africa since WWII.

There were between 300-400 rounds fired at the vehicle. Could be that the shot in the temple was very lucky. Still seems that with that many rounds fired, the shooter(s) intended to kill someone in the vehicle, if not everyone there.In addition to Calipari as a fatal victim, and Sgrena's wound, two others in the car were injured as well.

Special agent Calipari's act of selflessness in protecting Sgrena was courageous and cost him his life. Italian media was up in arms about the bravery of one of their countrymen who died due to "friendly fire". On that same day, 4 American soldiers died in combat in Iraq. The American media barely covered it.On Monday, I am sure there will be an outpouring of grief and sentiment during Calipari's funeral, one soldier who sacrificed his life to protect his freed hostage. A few moments of joyousness turned to tragedy and sorrow.Meanwhile on Monday, Bush is to embark on a 60 city tour to sell his plan to revamp social security, with hardly a nod to the 1500+ military deaths in Iraq. All weekend, the media spotlight has been on the release of media maven Martha Stuart. To most American eyes, this incident in Iraq never happened.

As an American, I am ashamed of my government and of all those who staunchly support it. As a first generation son of Italian immigrants, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Agent Calipari and to the proud citizens of Italy. You would do well to abandon the folly that is Iraq and let the Bush administration shoot their way out of it on their own.

Are they bankrupting the country by design? Definitely. It appears the plan is to bring the American people to their knees ableit slowly.Why? Two reasons. One, as the economy slowly implodes, there will be deals aplenty in foreclosures, and business sellouts, for the top one percent to scoop up. Two, a greatly weakened fearful and desparate populace will be easier to control.Not to mention a ever growing supply of unemployed desparate youngsters for cannon fodder for perpetual imperialism. They want to remove every safety net, every shred of protection offered to the peasantry so they can rule us totally. Outsource as many jobs as possible, and insource cheap illegal and guest workers to take whats left.Put the squeeze on us with ever higher energy and health costs. They want a feudal system with two classes: a ruling aristocracy and masses of poor. I wring my hands at how this country will ever get out of this mess.

FWIW, "What Really Happened" speculates Sgrena Sgrena was first "kidnapped", then targeted for assassination by the US because she found hard proof that the US was using banned chemical weapons on civilians in Fallujah.

I, too, am tempted to say: "Sorry world, it's the Republicans, not me." But what are we doing to stop this? This is the point that the Churchill fellow from Colorado is trying to make. We condemn the Germans who lived by the death camps in WWII for not speaking up, yet what have we done to turn our country around. If we benifit from the prosperity that America has to offer, we have a responsibility for what America does. We are not innocent...but I, too, am sorry.

That does seem to be the objective. In fact chaos seems to prevail wherever there are lots of valuable natural resources. (check out the mining industry)

As far as Bush's incompetence. What incompetence? They control every image, every question, every statement. I never think they don't know exactly what they're doing.(anymore) Remember when they referred to us as "Crusaders"? No mistake. Remember when they neglected to cover the escape route by sea out of Afghanistan, through Pakistan? (that would seem sorta easy, no?) No mistake. These people don't make mistakes. It's hard to follow their logic sure. They're nuts after all. But I don't believe they just don't notice the dumb things they do. It's like they are thumbing their noses at the world while standing behind the backs of the American people. A lot of the reason they won the last election is because many Americans resent being put-down by those foriegners. The Rethugs made that happen. The gay marriage thing, which I suspect they funded, was pretty obvious. Getting the world to hate us as an election ploy...well, Rove is a very, very good, very bad, bad boy.

My speculation would be, that Sgrena was kidnapped by a group of "insurgants" set up by the CIA or another intelligence outfit.It was done to silence her as critic of the occupation and all the war-crimes, and to scare any independent journalists away. Do you remember the video she was forced by her captors to make telling people, that nobody should come to Iraq, not even journalists.And probably her captors were ordered to kill her afterwards.But the Italians, being "allies" of the USA, probably knew something about the group the Americans had sponse. And being not quite as corrupt as the Americans, the Italians still cared about the fate of one of their citizens, even while Sgrena was critical of the Italian participation in the war.So the Italians paid more ransom than the US-intelligence outfit paid in hit-money and those sponsered insurgants, most probably just common criminals, were luckily more greedy than bloodthirsty.So since the "insurgants" didn´t do the job properly, American special forces tried to finish it.Since both Sgrena and Calipari now probably knew too much.Hopefully Italians will get rid of the American agent Berlusconi with the next elections and get themselves a normal European government like the Spanish did last year, so the will of the Italian people can be at least partly reflected again in their government.

Well, I see the tinfoil hat crowd is active. The US was trying to kill this journalist, fired "300-400 rounds" at them, and yet inexplicably only one bullet hit one occupant. And even more inexplicably, even though this was a planned assassination of the journalist, rather than carrying it out, the assassins left her and the other car occupants alive to report it.

You would do us all, including yourself, a great service by learning the facts about what you are talking about before you open your mouth and make a fool of yourself. Sgrena was shot herself in the shoulder and someone else in the vehicle was injured by gunfire as well, it was not just one bullet hitting just one person.

Why are you on this board anyway, shouldn't you be following the "official" US version of events on a US government web site somewhere because that's clearly the only version that you would actually believe, facts be damned.

And we can see easily why Republicans keep winning, because there are way too many people like you who are more inclined to believe a Republican lie than the objective truth. Talk about loony!

The reason the neo-cons (posing as the republican party) won the election is because their agents counted the votes. Diebold and ES&S computerised voting machines were programmed to 'rig' the election.

Don't believe me? prove me wrong then! what's that? you can't? that's right. the compiled code in the central tabulating machines that 'counted' the votes is a corporate secret. The US election votes were counted in total secrecy by software written by Republicans and the US public buys the result? How dumb can you get?

As for this shooting? Yeah she knew that the US had illegally and deliberately used banned internationally illegal chemical (nalpalm +) and phosforous weapons and depleted uranium tipped shells on civillians in Fallujah. But then that's not news (because fox and CNN say so). The US tried to have her killed for a number of reasons, that's why she is alive. The US are crap at killing individual targets, but great at the callateral damage. More British troops were killed by American's than were killed by Iraqi's until March 2004. So that's Iraq war 1 + 13 years of daily Iraq air war + a whole year of Iraq war 2 before the Iraqis caught up with the American's at killing the Brits.

The US are militarily incompetent, because they starve their society into creating dumbed down, stupid and very poor youth whose only chance in life becomes being cannon fodder for a few years in the hope of a college education.

These cretinous teenagers are then broken, brain washed (basic training) and given a gun (but little armour) sent to foreign countries that they didn't even know existed to face a culture that they don't understand and given a task to complete that they are incapable of. They quickly realise that they are indeed the bad guys, that they have been lied to by their own side and are facing a largely hidden, well trained, well camoflaged enemy whom are way more intelligent than them and they are sticking out like a sore thumb.

Anonymous One,oops,just one second while adjust my tin foil cap.First of all were these contract workers with a US company?We are lucky anyone made it out alive,and David is a good example of what is wrong with the late great US of A.[holes].Most people that I will talk to today will not have a FN clue about this event or anything to do withthe world outside of NASCAR,Fear Factor,and American Idolminded,dah?Who cares if we use weapons of MD,as long as the cable does'nt go out in the middle of my faverite show,I won't even know.Someone has placed a spell on this planet,and soon it will be harder to find people who can tell the truth from lies.In the end I wonder what it will be like when they start to use these tacktics on all of us.Amerazombies march willing to the edge,never looking down just keep marching,we are the slaves,god help us,later.

It's not the first time that trigger-happy G.I Joes are shooting at hostages. If you've heard about the kidnapping of the French journalists Christian CHESNOT and Georges MALBRUNOT, you may remember that an attempt to take them out of Iraq in Oct. 2004 (made by Didier Julia, a senator of the UMP party and long-term friend of the former iraqi regime) failed because they fell in an ambush by the US near the Syrian border, as D.Julia said later.

Although he said he was in constant contact with the French officials, the authorities declared they didn't know about this attempt and condemned it. D.Julia and his aides are now indicted on charge of intelligence with a foreign nation (i.e. : the president of Ivory Coast (?!?) paid some 3 millions € to solve the affair, and lent one of his own airplanes to transport the Julia's team). Both hostages were freed on oct. 21st 2004.

Now, Florence AUBENAS another French journalist and her iraqi assistant have been kidnapped since jan. 2005. In an undated video footage aired last week, she demands her liberation, asking directly the help of... guess who ? Didier Julia himself !!The man after being approached by the French "services", was dropped a few days ago under the excuse that his informations and contacts were irrelevant.

More BLOG Nonsense. If the US wanted her dead, she'd be dead. No one in the US is going to believe a reporter from a communists newspaper anyway, so why would the US administration be worried. An unfortunate accident by jittery US soldiers who just want to go home alive. Nothing more.

This wasn't a deliberate murder. It's worse than that. It's an example of how successful the insurgents have been in making the US forces so skittish that they will, literally, shoot anything that moves and does not identify itself in triplicate and in code.

Once an occupying force reaches this level of paranoia, it's all over.

Does David Nieporent really think that the cannon fodder grunts that are used to fire the guns actually know what or who they are firing at? The 4 or 5 troops that fired the 400 rounds at the car were following orders, orders that "an Iraqi insurgent car was approaching and that there was reason to believe that it was a "suicide bomb" attack." So they fill the car full of holes but Sgrena escapes with only minor wounds because her bodyguard does his job and covers her with his body. The US troops cease fire and arrive at the car and realise that the information they had received was "wrong". The likelihood is that there was no one there to finish the job because it was expected that Sgrena and all occupants would be dead, killed by the unwitting troops. This is how the hierarchy works, it is based on knowledge and the concentration of it in the hands of the few who use it to manipulate the masses. Consider the majority of Americans, the truth has been deliberately denied them in order to manipulate them, and guess what, it works! You want to know what you can do? Make conscious efforts to rid yourself of the lies and bullshit that constitute the contents of your head, not only in relation to external events in the world "out there" but in your own personal "inner world" where the tendency to lie to and delude oneself originates.

I think she was taken by a US-run group because of the Fallujah interviews she got and when the Italians outbid the US she was released. She was then ambushed by the US to eliminate the agent who obtained her release and the plan probably was that she was killed as well. Proof? Sure thing! Read on:First, answer the questions siezed where, when and by whom: according to the press, she was seized:Ms. Sgrena was abducted on Feb. 4 in Baghdad after conducting several hours of interviews with refugees from the decimated city of Falluja.

Gunmen pulled up in front of her car as she was leaving and dragged her into their vehicle. Her Iraqi employees managed to escape.

Two weeks later, Ms. Sgrena's captors released a video showing her tearfully pleading for her life and asking for the withdrawal of all the American-led forces. The words "Mujahedeen Without Borders," presumably the name of the group holding her, appeared in digital red Arabic script on a backdrop."

Second point: Ever heard of this group ever? Me neither.The name of the group that seized her is the link to the US. The name is far too tongue-in-cheek for me to think it is Iraqi, sounds like a US operative being clever.

Conclusion: I think she was captured by a USA-run group because of her interviews which gave her first hand knowledge of US war crimes and use of outlawed chemical weapons. The captors were bought off by the Italian agent.

Final note: Another reason to kill the negotiator: the US would not want ransoms paid for anyone because it undermines their control of such groups if to the highest bidder became the motto.

This whole affair, meaning everything in Iraq, is troubling and deliberate murder is inexcusable. A couple of points on the story. You can't have it both ways...either the car was riddled with 100s of bullets and it was a miracle anyone survived or it was an sniper with just the journalist targeted. Personally I think they wanted no survivors or witnesses. Just got unlucky. What a wretched world where this is what we send our soldiers to do. They will never be the same.

Perhaps Sgrena's captors gave her tidbits that tangentially would help document reasons to investigate complicity between occupation forces of the US and their strategists with certain "insurgent" elements...a nice way to prolong record logistical and privatized military support service profits! Just business as usual and only folowing orders mein herr!

When I first moved to Italy, it was at the time that the US pilot got a slap on the wrists for hot dogging his plane knocking down a cable car and killing 20 people. I never thought I could be so ashamed to be born in america. Now I'm not so sure.

When I first moved to Italy, it was at the time that the US pilot got a slap on the wrists for hot dogging his plane knocking down a cable car and killing 20 people. I never thought I could be so ashamed to be born in america. Now I'm not so sure.

The fact that she survived can be seen as the mistake. We then have to figure that had she and Calipari and the driver been killed this entire episode would have been blamed on those damn insurgents.

The scary thing about this is what is says about the administration's view of the American people, all of us. They understand that they can say things with impunity and get away with it because there are so many people who have bought into the bullshit. They know that the rest of us are discounted as unpatriotic or conspiracy theorists when we, rightly I believe, impute sinister motives to these criminals.

And I am a conspiracy theorist, a retired NYPD Captain and Marine combat veteran of Vietnam who believes these people have been involved in an ongoing criminal conspiracy since before the election of 1980. I fully believe the Ocotber Surprise premise and I think the shooting of Reagan was meant to warn him to just read the cue cards and let George H.W. Bush and Casey run the government as they saw fit.

How else do we explain the criminality of the past 24 years and the systematic plundering of the Treasury or the presence of outright convicted criminals occupying high positions in the executive branch, icluding war criminals like Negroponte and Abrams? This is just insane, yet WE are the ones who pose a threat to America?

It's strange when A news man named Eason Jordan, stated that" the american troops are targeting Journalist"? He is forced to resign.But now an Italian Journalist is shot; and her rescuer is killed. Question at crime scene? Where is the car? Are were they walking to the air port?

That does seem to be the objective. In fact chaos seems to prevail wherever there are lots of valuable natural resources. (check out the mining industry)"Very comforting words for anyone living where I do, in the bush of Western Australia. Our region of the state provides 1/3 of the GNP for the entire country via it's very rich ore and gas exports, which we sell in largest part to China. I fully expect to be over run with "my fellow Americans", both in suits and dressed as "security" to "protect America's interests", at any time.

Being America's "deputy" is a dangerous job. It is a job that most Australians do not want any more than we wanted to follow Matt Dillon into Iraq. Problem is, is someone shoots the sheriff's horse, he will take his deputies and leave him to fend for himself.

Of course they tried to kill her. She was a voice for reason and sanity.

I am please to see that the Australia press is telling both sides of the story.

I've opposed this invasion from the very start and I wish I could say blame the Rupublicans not America but I feel we should be doing more. Massive anti-war protests and people setting themselves on fire in the Washington Mall (which I may do if they start drafting my sons). Maybe if we had been building positive things instead of an ethos of Greed is Good. I don't know but it makes me truly sick to my stomach.

Here's a great headline:"Bush promises Italian leader a full investigation"

a ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ... HILARIOUS.

Just like he promised us an investigation of the intelligence that tricked us into war? like the Plame investigation?

Like he promised the Chileans an investigation of Riggs Bank ["in America" he said, "we like to keep things en la mesa... that is, on the table" what a dick, his own fmaily is way tied up in Riggs/Pinochet etc.]?

Or the investigation of torture? The investigation of the downed copter? The OTHER downed copter? The collided copters? Bush doesn't care about soldiers, investigation or who killed our boys and girls over there.

In the Bush dislexicon "full investigation" means one thing only. you'll NEVER HEAR ABOUT IT AGAIN.

Pinochet, Gulf War I, Iran-Contra, Watergate, JFK, the Savings & Loan scandals, child prostitutes in the White House, the October Surprise all have one name in common: George Herbert Walker Bush. That's just a fact.

I think this was another Bush crime. My apology on behalf of the American that do not support President Bush and his neo con war machine. He trying to shut the media here in the United States and when you dis agree with him you go to jail. He will be in my town on 03/11/2005 and I plan to protest. I already have attorney from the ACLU to protect me.

"When The Associated Press in Baghdad asked the U.S. military to see the vehicle on Saturday, the military said it didn't know where it was."http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050306/ap_on_re_eu/italy_iraq_hostage_reconstruction

It was a patrol. Any vehicle that gets within 50 meters of a patrol or convoy will be fired on if it does not stop or change direction due to the threat of suicide bombers.It was not an assasination attempt.I blame the driver...if he was experianced as the blogger claims he would have known this.Also 400 bullets fired and only one person was hit by gunfire?(the other 2 injuries were shrapnel)That only furthers the arguement that they were shooting at the engine and not the occupants.

It is very,very,very sick that those in power can do anything they want. In iraq the government sent the troops to kill,rape,torture, and even murder those journalists who want to tell the truth to the world.

It is very,very,very sick that those in power can do anything they want. In iraq the government sent the troops to kill,rape,torture, and even murder those journalists who want to tell the truth to the world.

It is very,very,very sick that those in power can do anything they want. In iraq the government sent the troops to kill,rape,torture, and even murder those journalists who want to tell the truth to the world.

Your got it wrong Hunter S Thompson was the gunner ,Gary Webb was the driver and Paul Wellstone was the spotter .You people should join us ,after all what has the "reality based world" ever done for you.Trust me I know what I'm doing.Love and prayersG.W.B.p.s. We make our own TRUTH,suckers

No investigation will ever be take place to sort out what really happened. The world will be fed more spin, more lies, more justification, just as has happened for the last four years. The current Bush Admini$tration is by far the largest and most powerful terrorist orginization on the planet, so they can do as they please and get away with it unscathed.

The real truth to this story is that Iraq is still a war zone where journalists and cameramen are risking their lives and others by being there. Giuliana Sgrena knew the risks of her actions. She chose to be placed in the middle of a war. She was kidnapped by one side and shot at by the other. People died, as they do in all wars. One of her own countrymen died saving her life. None of this needed to happen. I am sure her guilt runs deep. First and foremost Giuliana Sgrena should be taking some responsibility for the consequences of her actions before blaming my country.

May I advise the above poster "25:17", who claims to know what the real truth to this story is, to ask his or her own govenrment to take some responsibility for the consequences of its actions? This incident can signify one of two things: either the US military deliberately targets journalists, or the GIs in Iraq have absolutely no control whatsoever, shooting at anything that moves. According to the driver of the car, they were cruising at 50 km/h, ie 30 mph. Both he and Sgrena concur that the fusillade was sudden and unprovoked, without forewarning. American commentators in the mainstream media have largely taken a condescending tone, like you do yourself, doubting the victims' accounts of what happened. This will be sure to backfire among an Italian populace that is already largely against the war and occupation and which is currently seething with anger. Without heroic journalists like Mrs Sgrena, we would know pitifully little about the plight of the Iraqi people that the invasion was supposed to "liberate", the same people the occupying force doesn't care enough about to keep a body count.

I'm not sure about this but what about the weather? Why is it that airplanes all over the world are being used to create clouds? If no-one cares about Iraq, etc. why don't any of you care about what is going on in clear sight right over your heads every day. And if 'they' are using evey means possible to control the media in this 'war' how come we believe this at all? Maybe this whole story is a big construction just like the so-called holocaust and the second so-called 'world war'?

Oh yeah, and by the way when are the poor going to start fighting this war with the rich? They are kinda lagging a bit at the moment.

The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."

boy I hate these sites that are filtered by DARPA for ip's - it take so long to get through sometimes.

After a bit of contemplation it came to me that Sgrena is actually a US/Italian agent (ie MSNBCABCCNNFOX) and that the so-called dead agent isn't really dead at all.

Think about it, like others have said, if the US really wanted her dead, we wouldn't even know she was dead. What they want is a sensational mouthpiece to spread the Iraq magnet of media attention so no-one will notice all the other things that are going on everywhere else in the world right now.

In fact, I figure you so-called bloggers are in on it too because you never ever talk about the real problem - the end of the Earth. Global warming. Freakish weather. We're doomed. Good-bye, it's been a realpain not knowing you all.

Thank you so much to Mr. Wells for providing such fine articles, and the opportunity for others to respond. Until recently, I have avoided looking in depth at the news, and politics, seeking instead to help myself and others through buddhist practice. But I had a strange and horrible nightmare two weeks ago about redneck pedophiles, and somehow found myself reading the Signs of the Times news site, and this one to find out about the situation with Gannon. I feel so horrified and also refreshed that people are becoming aware of the truth, as it applies to the horror of the current Government in the US. It seems the only solution to this problem is to achieve critical mass. Enough people must hear the truth, and communicate with each other in order to stop the madness of these Global Elites. I believe a large majority of Americans and others oppose Bush, but are frozen in a state of denial and apathy. I have tremendous respect and gratitude to the heroic members of the press including bloggers who are calling the alarm. It is very disconcerting that members of the press who honor truth, and decent human values are being targeted for attack. Blogs such as this one will be an essential tool if the truth is to be heard, and it is unfortunate that bloggers are now being systematically marginalized, and discounted by the mainstream. Is it common that Anti-Bloggers write in here with sarcastic and venomous comments as they have been today?

American fools,recall when Canada poliliticians called Bush a MORON?--No-one of you agreed.Face the truth-you been had! If it was not the middle-east that Israel wants for itself-the majority zionist media would have exposed Bush--as DUMB--useless spoiled idiot.Bush is surrounded by a tough coating of zionist Teflon.Nothing will stick,no matter what dirty deeds we bloggers will expose.Killing of reporters---no problem,to our media--notice no Fox or CNN ect-lost any? The root of the problem--oligarchies-and if you don't know the meaning look it up. Recall Iraq---20% of the population were Bathiest --who control the rest slave slobs--KILL THEM OLIGARCHIES-America shills cry out.In America--you fools,3% control America and you saps are fighting their conquest to rule the world. FOOLS!--start burning the zionists media's head offices--that will thin Bush's Teflon coating.

Could it be that a sniper got Calipari, but since he was so quick to cover Sgrena, they missed her? Think of it, 300 rounds shot and not the driver? If the target was Calipari only, then why did they continue shooting and how were they careful not to get the driver?

I think they were trying to take out both Calipari and Sgrena, and only reason for all the extra rounds was to try to somehow reach Sgrena, because they knew they failed.

These were sharpshooters or they would have accidentally hit the driver with that many shots. What are the odds of missing him if not?

Yes, we "TIN HATTERS" are at it again. Someone needs to tell the world the truth about what's going on right under their noses, even yours David. Do you think you really matter to the Zionist Pigs that rule the corporate media and government? To them, you're nothing more than the rest of us, just another member of the GOYIM CATTLE HEARD. That's right, that's just what they call everyone that isn't a member of their elite crowd. Maybe all of you need to dawn a "TIN HAT" so you aren't so brain washed and controlled that you too will be able to see past the end of your noses. These globalist pigs want their NEW WORLD ORDER in place by the year 2010. That's not far off and it's people like you that laugh at us "TIN HATTERS" and try to make a mockery of our efforts. One day, you're going to wake up and say, "What happened?" It's not like you aren't being warned now. You're just too ignorant, blind and stupid to see the truth and you laugh at it while you're rights are being nibbled at and eroded every day. Who cares how many shots were fired at the journalist's car? The fact is that we shouldn't even be in Iraq fighting a trumped up "FASCIST WAR". GET A CLUE PEOPLE! WAKE UP!!!If you want more information on who these "global elite" are, take a look at the David Icke website athttp://www.davidicke.com

The U.S. really screwed the pooch on this one - Sgrena was not supposed to leave Iraq alive. When the CIA failed to silence her they had one option left: kill her at the checkpoint.

This is but one more instance of the attempted murder of an independent journalist by the CIA.It started with Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, and is continuing worldwide.

We have been waiting for an instance such as this. The Bush administration will not be able to lie it's way out of it. The CIA is culpable in the majority of these murders and they, like the Bush administration, will eventually be exposed. They can't kill us all.

If you let people back anywhere near the whitehouse/pentagon who were once, even remotely, involved with a disgraced president you get what you deserve - criminal leadership. If you threaten to pull you troops/support from American theatres of war you get a terrorist attack. I don't have the answer but if you cant impeach the bad guy and his henchmen we will ALL suffer.

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